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  LOVING SIN MORE THEN JESUS
  by Mark Greening
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the need for repentance, humility, and a
deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ to experience personal and corporate
revival. It highlights the importance of understanding and confessing
sins, believing in God's promises for freedom, and allowing the Holy
Spirit to work in our hearts. The speaker shares personal experiences
and biblical truths to encourage listeners to seek God's mercy,
forgiveness, and transformation.

Duration: 1:02:17

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the need for repentance, humility, and a deep
love for the Lord Jesus Christ to experience personal and corporate
revival. It highlights the importance of understanding and confessing
sins, believing in God's promises for freedom, and allowing the Holy
Spirit to work in our hearts. The speaker shares personal experiences
and biblical truths to encourage listeners to seek God's mercy,
forgiveness, and transformation.

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CONTENT
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Father, we thank you for your evident presence in the meetings this
morning with our brother Richard, as he has spoken to us and challenged
us. Now, Father, quieten our hearts again, I pray that as Mark speaks to
us, we might hear you speak. Grant to him, Lord, your unction, your
clarity of mind, clarity of tongue, and may his heart overflow as he
ministers to us.

May you minister to him. We thank you, Father, we commit him to you now,
and we open our hearts and our ears to hear what you have to say to us.
In Jesus' name.

Do you believe God's word? I'm glad Dick Siffley broke you in. Let me
ask another question. Do you believe the promises in God's word? Now,
before you say yes, remember that there are 7,487 promises in God's
word.

You may not be sure, some of them you may wonder if they're for Israel
or someone else, but there are some promises that are so evident that to
disbelieve them is to do nothing short than call God a liar. But let God
be true in every man a liar, scripture says. We're here because this is
a revival conference.

We're here because we're here because either we've been praying for
revival, we desire revival in our own lives or in the church, or we're
just wondering what it's all about. But I want to tell you today that
revival is not just the sovereign work of God. It is.

Everything in this world is a sovereign work of God, is it not?
Everything's under God's umbrella of sovereignty. We can blame God for a
lot of things that don't happen because we use our theology against what
ought to be. But it is God's desire to revive us as we will see today in
the word of God.

As a matter of fact, he gives one promise in 2 Chronicles 7, 14. He
says, if my people will, then I will. Now that sounds like a promise,
that sounds like a condition, does it not? If my people who are called
by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn
from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their
sin and heal their land.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in
this place. What are the prayers that you are praying that you need God
to answer on your behalf, on behalf of your family, on behalf of your
church, on behalf of this nation? God says, if you will, then I will. My
text this morning is Psalm 85, verse 6, which says, will you not revive
us again that your people may rejoice in you? It's not enough for
countries around the world and different locations to have been revived
in times past.

It's not enough for us to be personally revived in times past, whether
it's a month ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, 50 years ago. God says in
his word, he expects that we're going to cry out, will you not revive us
again? And we can only be revived in our hearts, whatever that means, if
we listen to what God says to us in his word. You know, it'd be a
wonderful thing tomorrow morning to read in the headlines of the
newspapers that revival came to Victoria.

That would be a wonderful thing. But even if it doesn't come to Victoria
at large, in 2nd Corinthians 3, it says that Christ himself will write
not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God on tablets of human
hearts. And he can write on your hearts, in my heart, revival came to
dot, dot, dot.

Put your name in where those dots are. Zechariah 4.10 says, who despises
the day of small things? We often think of revival as something that
sweeps a nation. But this verse is talking about you personally being
revived, me personally being revived again and again and again and
again.

We think that revival only counts if it's some big, huge event. Let me
tell you, let me ask you a question. Someone with the gift of healing
was to go down to a large hospital here and was to heal a thousand
people in that building all at once with a prayer from the front lawn.

And a thousand people were healed and there was wonderful healing. And
one of us came forward today and by the power of God you were healed.
Let me ask you, one individual, would you feel any more excitement than
any one of those thousand people in that big building about your
healing? No.

You would be just as excited. And over the years I have witnessed many,
many times, over and over and over again, because God says, if you will,
I will. I've seen individuals revived.

I've seen families revived. I've seen churches revived. I've seen home
fellowships revived.

One of the key words in this verse is the word again. As a matter of
fact, in verses 2 to 4 of Psalm 85, 6, we read this, you forgave the
iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside your
wrath and turned from your fierce anger.

Restore us again, O God, our Savior, and put away your displeasure
toward us. It's talking about people who are saved. Their sins are
forgiven.

That's the doctrine of justification. God's wrath is satisfied. That's
the doctrine of propitiation.

And yet there is still a need for us to be restored again in verse 4 and
be revived again in verse 6. This brings up a critical point in our walk
as Christians today, because as Christians and in our churches, we need
to be constantly in a state of being revived. You know, when I was
younger, I used to think that my spiritual gift, one of them, was
backsliding. I could backslide real fast.

You know, as I get older, the backsliding just becomes more subtle,
right? It becomes sins of the heart. Out of the heart come these things.
And I find that I have to come to a place of brokenness again and again
and again.

And Lord willing, I will preach on brokenness tomorrow night. Lord
willing. All we have to do is to look at the powerlessness of our
churches and even our own lives to recognize that we are in desperate
need of revival.

Now, the obvious question would be, well, how does a person get revived?
But I don't want to ask the obvious question this morning. I want to ask
that obvious question in a different way. I want to ask the question
this way.

How does a person get unrevived? Because the answer to how we get
unrevived is the answer to how we're going to get back to being revived.
The answer to how a person becomes unrevived is found at the end of
verse 6. Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in
you? Brothers and sisters, we fall into a backslidden state when we no
longer find our joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we no longer love
him.

When we find more joy in the things of this world. When we find more joy
in a relationship with a husband or wife or your children, a boyfriend,
a girlfriend, a best friend, someone else. We have more joy in a
relationship with a human being, a sinful human being, than with the
Holy Son of God.

When we find more joy in money and security and our investments and in
our plans for the future and for leisure than in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we find more joy in our possessions, in success or power or
position or lustful pleasures than in Christ. I like what our brother
said the other night.

He says just let your mind go and wherever it lands, that's where your
heart is. Jeremiah 2.12 we read, be appalled at this, O heavens, and
shudder with great horror, declares the Lord. Why would the heavens
shudder? That's a big place up there to shudder.

Verse 13 tells us, my people have committed two sins. They have forsaken
me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken
cisterns that cannot hold water. Can you imagine that? You have a
wonderful fresh well and instead of going to that wonderful fresh well,
you go and dig a hole down by the swamp where there's amoeba and
parameciums and tadpoles and everything else in that water and you drink
from that.

And heaven goes, this forsaking of God not only happened in the Old
Testament, it also happened in New Testament times as well. Revelation
chapter two, the Christians there had left their first love. They didn't
lose their first love.

We often talk about losing your first love. No, they had, as an act of
the will, they had left their first love. They turned their back on the
Lord Jesus to embrace people, places, things, possessions, whatever it
was, and they loved those things more than Jesus.

That's the way, brothers and sisters, we become unrevived. We stop
loving the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts, souls, mind, and
strength. We become unrevived when we break the first commandment, which
is to have no other gods before Him.

If we have other gods, would we love anything or anyone or any goal more
than Him? The apostle Paul said in Philippians 1, for me to live is
Christ. Whatever was to my prophet in chapter three, I consider it dung,
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. So the way to
revival is finding our joy in the Lord again, or if you've never found
your joy in the Lord, it's to begin to find your joy in the Lord today,
possibly by true salvation.

You know, I've been asked to leave a church before because Christians
were getting born again. Have you ever seen Christians get born again?
It's a wonderful thing. I know it's possible for Christians to get born
again because I was one of them.

I got saved three times, the third time counted though. Do you know how
people get saved but not saved? Because they come, they're told, they
hear a hell-fired brimstone sermon, and they come and they pray, God
save me from hell, right? I don't want to go to hell. That's what I
prayed.

I prayed the sinner's prayer. I didn't who wants to go to hell? Lord,
save me from hell. That's not what the angel said.

Emmanuel, God with us, we said, you shall call his name Jesus for he
shall save his people from hell. From what? Their sins. You see, when we
want to be saved from hell, but we don't want to be saved from our sins,
then we only deceive ourselves, and that's where we're still going.

When God saves us, he saves us from our sins. We'll talk about this at
the end. He saves us from our sins and the desire to sin and live in
sin, but this is called a revival conference.

And whether revival sweeps Victoria like it did the eastern seaboard in
1857 through Jeremiah Lamphere with a total of almost two million people
being swept into the kingdom over the next few years, whether that
happens or whether a handful of us today find our joy in the Lord Jesus
Christ and repent of our our sin of rejoicing in other things rather
than in the Lord Jesus and loving other things more than Jesus Christ,
revival can come. I believe that. Over the years, I've witnessed many
individual revivals in people and families.

I've mentioned that and I'll share some of those testimonies in a few
minutes, but I want to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a deep love
for God and not just conviction of sin or convicting messages or prayer
alone is necessary if God is to send personal or corporate revival. Many
of you have read the account of the Welsh revival in the early 1900s
where 100,000 people were saved in the space of about 10 weeks, but are
you aware that the flashpoint of that revival, the one event that God
wanted people to remember as the start of that great awakening, took
place on the second Sunday of February 1904 where after the morning
service the youth got together in the vestry and their pastor Joseph
Jenkins asked them this question, tell me what is God doing in your
life? One or two got up to read scriptures and to preach at the others
and Jenkins interrupted and said, no, no, tell me what is God doing? Is
he real to you? And then a 19-year-old girl by the name of Flory Evans
stood up. She was a fairly new Christian and she said this, I am unable
to say very much today but I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart he
died for me.

Those words ignited the flame that was to eventually lead to national
and even worldwide revival in selected places. God confounded the wisdom
of the wise by not using theologians or pastors or revival preachers
although he did use them powerfully as he did with Evan Roberts but he
used the teenage girl to spark one of the most powerful revivals this
world has ever seen. Not with fancy words or theatrics or rhetoric but
in simplicity and sincerity expressing her deep love for the Lord Jesus
Christ.

Is this not what the psalmist meant when he said in Psalm 51 12, restore
to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain
me then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will turn back
to you. Have you ever considered that the one of the most effective ways
of seeing people saved and backsliders turning back to God is through
the example, through the words, through the teaching and the preaching
of people who are filled with joy and love for the Lord Jesus? That's
what it says here and when we love the Lord Jesus it's infectious and
others get convicted as a matter of fact others that aren't even knowing
they're being convicted they aren't even hearing the messages they get
convicted by God and they come in and they get saved. I remember this is
what happened back in 1992.

I'd become pastor of a church I never intended to be I never wanted to
be a pastor of a church I said oh Lord spare me from that I'll be
itinerant preacher because you're not allowed you're not around long
enough for them to kick you out you know you just kind of go from place
to place they know you're going after a week or so and you can move on I
said oh Lord I used to say the world's worst job was being a pastor and
the second worst was being a missionary that's when I was a teenager I
used to watch these you know missionary conferences that would come I
said oh Lord call me to be a missionary but not a pastor and somehow I
got into this church I didn't look for they said we want you I preached
I pulled the pin on a revival sermon launched that grenade said they'll
never invite me back here they said we want you so I didn't have
anything to do so I said okay you know the Lord was burdening me that I
was to preach on revival and so we got there and the board introduced me
to this great big thick manual it's a huge it was a strategic plan of
what we were going to tell God to do and how he was going to do it over
the next five years I've mentioned it it was a marvel to angels and pets
alike it was it was phenomenal this thing I looked at it one of the
other elders was kind of on my side I said what are we going to do they
said let's hide it so we hid it we hid it we we didn't want the board to
see that thing it was amazing and we used to go into our board meetings
with Robert's rules of order and it was just I said Lord spare us from
this and finally I preached I taught them a message all the elders I
said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word
and prayer you know to wait on tables so to speak I combined two verses
in acts and and they got the idea I said listen as elders we got to pray
if we're not praying we really disqualify ourselves from being elders
well everyone resigned on the board except for one man who really
believed that he should pray and I had been praying for once oh Lord
descend upon us according to Zechariah 12 10 by your spirit of grace and
supplication we need you to fall on us if your spirit does if your Holy
Spirit does not enable us to pray we can't even pray isn't that what
Romans 8 says you don't know what you ought to pray for he helps us in
our weaknesses because we don't know what to pray for so we began to
pray we prayed Lord search me oh God I remember hearing from Blue Terror
Revival as God's point to point back at us never forget hearing him say
that years ago and I said Lord forgive me forgive me and I began to get
broken over my sin then one day I get a call from this elder my only
elder and I didn't know it was him on the phone he was weeping and I
said to him brother where are you what's what's wrong he says I'm at
work he was the controller of an engineering company he says I'm at work
I said where are you he says in my office I said is your door shut I
thought he's gonna embarrass us he says yes it's shut I said he says I'm
down behind my desk on the floor I said what are you doing down there he
says God is breaking me from my foot for my sin God is convicting me of
my sin I am so grieving over my sin I said praise God come on over after
work we'll pray some more so we came and we prayed we began praying that
God would raise up others and then another elder joined us there was
three of us quarter three strands is not easily broken we began praying
that God if you if you don't if you don't do something here Lord we
won't pray so we prayed for three months God dealt with us as elders and
then we prayed for another three months and one day we were at a retreat
I wasn't speaking at the retreat and I don't even remember what the
topic was necessarily was some general topic on prayer and we were
standing out back after one of the sessions and and all of a sudden
there were 17 of men there and one of the men said at a clear blue we
need to start praying as men and immediately immediately all 17 agreed
and they started getting together to pray for revival in their own
hearts in their own families in the church and then beyond three more
months after that God came God came we didn't know he was going to come
we didn't know how he was going to do it but he came no programs no
evangelism no handing out tracts nothing against these things I'm just
saying that God came and we we we didn't check to see if he you know if
he was on time right we didn't check that manual God came we would go to
I get a phone call I go to see someone who didn't know the Lord I would
open the scriptures I'd let them start to read within three or four
verses it was the same thing they would begin to weep for 10 minutes
they'd weep I'd say nothing they would come out saved over and over and
over every week one two three four matter of fact every time we came to
church we no longer asked the question did anyone get saved this week
but who got saved this week the ladies came to us and they said we want
to start a ladies prayer group now I said why do you want to do that
because the men have left the left us in the dust spiritually our
husbands more men were coming than women to prayer 75 percent of the
church was involved in prayer every week cottage it didn't matter where
but we we had no agendas there was no more out we stopped how we never
had elders meetings after that there were elders prayer meetings that's
all we had and we would pray about things and we could pray one hour two
hours three hours whatever the Lord showed us I remember that not only
was God saving the people who wanted to get saved he would bring people
in I remember at the back of the church I'd meet someone afterwards and
I'd say oh you're new here where are you where where do you live they
say oh they tell me where they lived and I said well who invited you
here they said no one I said why did you come this morning they said we
don't know God woke us up and told us to come God we would talk to them
they'd get saved God was even saving people that didn't want to get
saved do you know that God can save people that don't want to get saved
we think we gotta somehow convince them God began saving I I remember
this one lady this man he had just been saved outside of our church and
he was from Vietnam he had a Buddhist background and God wonderfully
saved him and he said pastor if if you talk to my wife she'll get saved
she was very antagonistic through the gospel she was very very devout
Buddhist and I said well I can't save anyone but if you want to bring
her over for dinner this Friday night my wife will cook something and
we'll we'll talk to her so she came there she was so unreluctant she
just sat there looking at me I shall not be moved she just sat like that
and so I thought well how am I gonna put it so I said to her I said um
let me your husband is so excited about what's happened to him let me
share what God did for him so I I used that story to share the gospel
and at the end I said would you like to become a Christian too and she
said no and by the way she could barely understand English barely
understanding uh I said oh you don't want to be converted do you believe
these things at least you believe something she said no so what do you
do you can't do anything we just made small talk we keep you 10 minutes
later she begins weeping and weeping and weeping and finally her husband
was able to get some words in edgewise there and he turned to me he said
pastor good news I said what good news she's under conviction of the
Holy Spirit and she wept for 10 minutes and he got saved got up
rejoicing and praising God in her language gave us all hugs and has
since led almost all of her Buddhist relatives to Christ how did God
save her when she couldn't even understand me people would come the most
I I could tell I'm not gonna I have to be careful about stories here
maybe I'll share some more on on Thursday night but I want to let you
know that when God decides to move if you will then I will we cannot put
that into a formula every time I've seen God move it's always been a
little bit different but one thing is is is constant people get right
and deal with their sin they love the Lord Jesus and God saves and he
delivers if we love the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts and that
was that was the thing that so characterized our leaders they were in
love with Jesus they loved him with all their hearts they didn't care
about anything anymore two of my elders ended up one of them's now he's
passing he's on his third church in a very large church in Toronto and
then another is running a small Bible college elsewhere but they were
never the same after they saw God move they were never the same they
quit their jobs and they went to serving the Lord one more just just two
more stories recent ones there's one man that came to our fellowship and
26 years old he's been looking for truth for years went to all the cults
all the isms all different denominations all different churches good
churches why not and he came in one day and there was so much love the
Lord was doing such a work every week people were being saved we're
where we were ministering and uh exactly what scripture says if you will
I will so we just assume that God will we I just assume I believe that I
do I really believe God will revive I believe he's going to revive some
of you today I do and if not today then tomorrow or next week because
you can't get away from the Holy Spirit convicting you his words will be
like a barb in your heart and he'll get you where you want you and he'll
bring you to brokenness and tears some of you and he'll save you or
deliver you or free you but this man came in and I shared something I
don't know what I shared that morning and afterwards he was observing
all the people around him and they loved each other I mean they they
love each other and they hugged each other giving one another holy hugs
that they weren't giving holy kisses that's what we used to do back I'm
french background we used to do holy kisses that that's a stretch or
something but but we we we have holy hugs where we are now that's the
british thing to do we have holy hugs that he couldn't believe this this
love and how kind people were to one another and he came to me in the
dining room and he said listen he says I've been looking for truth for
years he says but today I don't know need to know whether you are
speaking the truth about salvation I can feel the love here and he got
saved that night and he just led the sunday service and taught this past
sunday well I'm here you see when the lord saves and the spirit of god
comes on a person he changes them and transforms them you see the lord
cares about our hearts above all else that's why in proverbs it says my
son give me your heart he doesn't need our money our talents or our hard
work you see the pharisees had given all these things to him and jesus
says these people honor me with their lips but their hearts they're far
from me jesus cares about our hearts was this not the reason that jesus
did what he did when he restored peter how would a court of law have
dealt with peter today they would have had videotapes and reenactment
and and eyewitnesses and they would have raked him through the coals and
made his whole inquisition a very painful one what does jesus do he
doesn't even bring up the event he just looks at him because he doesn't
care about how good a fisherman peter is how good a businessman he is
how good a leader of the other 12 11 or how good a preacher he is all
jesus cares about is his heart and he says peter i just want to know
some three times i want to ask you the same question because this is
really important to me do you love me more than these and jesus asks us
that question this morning do you do you love me more than people places
or things or goals you know the holy spirit tells us what it is we love
more than him today i know i can't help but sit back there and even as
our brother preached and others have preached the holy spirit speaks to
me and convicts me deeply of my sin and my failure and the fact that i
need to get back to him to revive me again that i might rejoice in him
can we be honest with god for a moment the lord jesus was to appear and
just look right at you with those piercing eyes and say do you love me
more than what would you say do you love me more than your life have you
ever witnessed someone losing their life and been happy about it i have
i've oh i love seeing people lose their lives i mean spiritually
speaking i remember going to one house and his dear sister with her
husband was counseling them and i had quoted john 12 24 i tell you the
truth unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains
only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seeds the man who
loves his life will lose it well the man who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life and as i was sharing this with this
dear sister she was struggling and under conviction of the holy spirit
because like many of us we like to control our lives we we believe the
lie that to be happy we have to control things so that we're happy son
and daughter i'm not going to be happy unless i can control you and make
you say and do the things i want you to do husband i'm not going to be
happy unless you do exactly what i want you to do and wife and i'm not
we do this we try to control people oh it's a wonderful thing when we
learn that we're not the holy spirit another person's life that he does
a great job doesn't he and as she listened that the lord spoke to her
heart and she began to weep and she says lord jesus you died for me but
i've never died for you in other words dying in my life just dying to
self and as she wept i wept i never heard a more sincere prayer and she
wept and she died that day for you died and your life is now hidden with
christ in god colossians 3 says and she died to that desire to control
and what freedom there was in her heart see one of the main barriers to
revival is a joyless loveless walk with god now someone will say i
thought that sin was the barrier to revival and it is i mean isn't that
what 2nd chronicle 7 14 says were to turn from our wicked ways sin is a
main barrier to revival but the question i want to answer today is why
do we sin you see if we know why we sin we'll be more convicted i
believe by that sin the reason we sin the reason there is so little
revival in our lives is because according to psalm 85 verse 6 we do not
rejoice in the lord we do not love him as we ought it is not just enough
for us to know about sin and know that we have to repent of it and just
do that intellectually the pharisees were like that they had their 613
laws and yet despite all of their actions they dotted their eyes and
crossed their t's their hearts were far from him they had no joy and
love for god himself revival will come to us personally and corporately
when our greatest desire is to love the lord jesus with all our heart
and to hate sin we need to understand the reason we sin is because we
love that sin or those things more than the lord jesus and when we love
something more than the lord jesus we sin do you understand the way that
works do you remember what here it is a perfect situation in the garden
of eden they had it made adam and eve did perfect temperature didn't
have to worry about the latest fashions they didn't have to worry about
air conditioning and heating and gas bills they didn't have to pay taxes
there was no no traffic jams going to work i mean what could be better
than it was in the garden of eden so satan came and he somehow tempted
them to believe that there was something better than the lord walking in
the cool of the day with them every day if you just have it look at
doesn't this look lovely and they thought oh does is that ever lovely we
love that and the idea in that case in this case of knowledge we love
that idea more than the fact that we love the lord jesus who told us not
to do that you see the israelites thought too that they'd be happy what
would make you happy well i remember back and we could go to swish we
could get that meat and all we have is this mana lord they grumbled and
complained and god says okay and he sends in these low-flying quail and
they grab them out of the air and scripture says while the meat was
still between their teeth he sent leanness to their souls god it's not
enough that you are this rock that rock which is with us was christ it's
not enough that christ with us we want something else we want some food
that'll really make us happy we love this more than we love you that's
what caused david to fall he thought lord it's not enough what you've
given me i want something more and he fell into sin with bashiva and all
of these things are ploys and distractions of the devil to take our eyes
off of the lord jesus and to keep us from loving god with all our hearts
could could we get honest again i remember once the lord spoke to me
about this it's a wonderful thing to be honest you desire truth in the
inner parts the psalmist says and then he goes on and gives his
confession in psalm 51 but i remember sitting there one day and lord
says where can you get honest with me and tell say these words that you
love that sin more than you love me can you say that but you know what i
got honest with god i said lord the reason i'm sitting is i love that
sin more than you that was very convicting and then to come to him in
brokenness and repentance and ask him to take that out of our lives and
out of my life second timothy 3 1 says but mark this there will be
terrible times in the last days people will be lovers of themselves
lovers of money verse 4 lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god and
if we're not revived it's because we're loving something else some other
sin more than the lord jesus matthew 6 24 no one can serve two masters
either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to
the one and despise the other you cannot serve both god and money if you
love money you can't love god you see money is a wonderful servant but a
terrible master 1 john 2 15 do not love the world or anything in the
world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him
james 4 4 you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the
world is hatred toward god anyone who chooses to be a friend of the
world becomes an enemy of god or do you think scripture says without
reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely and as
was said earlier in these this conference that god is a jealous god and
he does not wanting does not want us loving something or someone else
more than him especially sin there's nothing wrong with loving our
spouses or our children or our brothers and sisters in christ it's just
a matter of degree if we love them more than jesus then we sin against
him and we cannot be revived you say well how do i know if i love
something more than the lord jesus well how much time do you spend
thinking about it what keeps you awake at night how much time do you
spend worrying about those investments you know the coyote has run off
the cliff and it has not looked down yet that's why we have not had an
economic collapse but the coyote is about to look down what are we
worrying about where your treasure is there your hearts will be also
what pleasures do we like do we spend our time mostly with tv or books
some leisure some sport bodily exercise profiteth little doesn't profit
some but we can make even exercise in health of god to itself am i given
over to impurity or pornography or masturbation or lustful thoughts or
any of these things we don't talk about these things in church anymore
we don't so because we don't talk about these things people think it's
just normal i'll talk about freedom from this in a minute god wants
honesty our brother preached this this morning proverbs 28 13 he who
conceals his sins does not prosper but whoever confesses and renounces
them finds mercy you see our hearts can attach themselves to so many
things it was i thought it was one of the funniest quotes i ever heard
as a teenaged lucy tara he used to say that when the rapture comes many
christians are going to go up feet first holding on to the things they
loved holding onto that steering wheel hopefully have a convertible if
that happens you know a hundred years from now not one of us will
remember the things that enthralled us and captivated our hearts unless
it's the lord jesus christ we won't even think about it there'll be
nothing it's done paul said i consider it a loss comparing compared to
the surpassing greatness of an owing jesus christ my lord for whose sake
i have lost all things 1st john 2 17 says the world and its desires pass
away but the man who does the will of god lives forever there's no
reason there's no reason any one of us needs to either leave today
unrevived or to not be revived in this next week or this next month as
we do business with god there is no reason will you not revive us again
that your people may rejoice in you once we understand what it means to
repent of loving these things more than the lord jesus christ then 2nd
chronicles 7 14 and 15 makes sense that if my people who are called by
my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from
their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven will forgive their sin
and heal their land now my eyes will be open in my ears attentive to the
prayers offered in this place now here's where the devil comes along
brothers and sisters he comes along and tells us that we're too great a
sinner to ever be forgiven as a matter of fact those the more you know
the scriptures you know the enemy can use scriptures against you too
i've had many people come to me and said we're just like that that
person like esau in in book of hebrews you know hebrews 12 17 people
have quoted this to me afterward as you know when he wanted to inherit
this blessing he could bring about no change of mind though he sought
the blessing with tears and they say it doesn't matter if i repent
because i've gone too far for too long that's a lie of the devil so
first corinthians 11 31 says but if we judged ourselves we would not
come under judgment isn't the lord merciful today whatever the holy
spirit has nudged you and me about today do you know he says that if we
judged ourselves if we get honest with him and tell him lord i have
sinned and i have loved this sin lord this is what i have done against
you lord forgive me but i want to repent of this sin i'm going to come
to you in brokenness lord if i don't have godly sorrow godly sorrow
works repentance that leads to salvation but worldly sorrow leads to
regret do you know what the definition i once i said lord what's the
difference how do i know if i have godly sorrow let me tell you what
godly sorrow is very simply godly sorrow is understanding first what
your sin is that the holy spirit is convicting you about and being so
grieved and sorry about it that if you could go back and relive your
life knowing what you know today you would not fall into that sin that's
godly sorrow now often it will come with tears god says if you will
judge yourself you will not come under judgment oh i love psalm 103
verse 8 the lord is compassionate and gracious slow to anger abounding
in love he will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our
iniquities for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is
his love for those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so
far as he removed our transgressions from us as the father has
compassion on his children so the lord has compassion on those who fear
him for he knows how we are formed he remembers that we are dust i
remember years ago i prayed a very foolish prayer i prayed many but this
one was really foolish i remember reading a story about general booth
praying he said lord if you could just dangle all of my elders over the
pit of hell for a minute it would cure them of their backsliding he
wrote something like that so i thought i don't know that's a little
extreme lord i want i know what i want if you could give me a vision
like i isaiah had of your holiness that would cure me no i wasn't really
looking for a vision but i wanted something i just wanted something to
keep me going and i prayed nothing happened a few days later i was alone
in my apartment on my knees and we used to have a country place in
vermont and i had the ominous task of digging up that cesspool and
putting a new one and i remember thinking i saw myself in the middle of
that cesspool with my nose just above the sludge line and i said lord
what is this i was just minding my own business praying and the lord
spoke to my heart and he says mark that's the way i see your sin and i
said surely not i lord i said that's not my sin that's the sin of the
prostitutes and the drug dealers in in parkside where at king and
jameson where i used to take teams we grew up witnessing and talking to
the people there i said that's their sin and the lord spoke to my heart
very clearly again he says no mark that's your sin because when they sin
they do it comes naturally but when you sin you sin against knowledge
and light i was devastated you know when the psalmist said take not thy
holy spirit from me i know theologically that when we having believed
you remarked in the holy spirit i realized we cannot lose the holy
spirit we can lose his anointing but we do not lose that ceiling do you
know i know what the psalmist meant because it felt like god's holy
spirit was taken from me at that moment and for two weeks it felt like i
was hanging by the skin of my teeth over the pit of hell that any moment
i could lose my life for eternity every day i drove i would drive on the
401 and i i'd be weeping because all i could see was my sin and i prayed
god take my life cause this car to go into the it was an old car anyways
i propped up the front end i used to be a mechanic it was still in a
garage and so i knew what to do and there's an old honda the front end
had fallen down so i took a driveshaft stuck it through the two tow bars
and kept the front end to go it would just move like this the front end
you know so you go around the corner you had to actually start turning
before you hit the corner because there was a delayed reaction and so i
used to say lord this would be this forensics would find it real easy it
was the front end that broke just caused me to go in the car i take my
life i prayed every day he would take my life it was so awful what i was
going through nothing happened and after two weeks i went back to my
apartment alone i got on my knees and i said lord you've always answered
my prayer you did not answer my prayer for this and um i prayed for a
vision of your holiness and you didn't answer me and then god broke the
silence and he spoke to my heart and he said this he says mark i did
answer your prayer but i couldn't show you my holiness until i first
showed you your sinfulness now open to micah chapter 7 verse 18 i i did
not know what that passage was and i opened to micah chapter 7 verse 18
and i read these words who is a god like you who pardons sin and
forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance you do not
stay angry forever but the light to show mercy you will again have
compassion on us and you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our
iniquities into the depths of the sea and as i read tears of joy began
streaming down my face and it was over and the lord released me from
that and he laid on my heart now don't you ever dare look down on anyone
else in their sin because but for the grace of god there go you joel 2
12 says even now declares the lord return to me with all your heart with
fasting and weeping and mourning rend your heart and not your garments
return to the lord your god for he is gracious and compassionate slow to
anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity who
knows he may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing grain
offerings and drink offerings for the lord your god isaiah 57 15 for
this is what the high and lofty one says he who lives forever whose name
is holy i live in a high and holy place but also with him who is
contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to
revive the heart of the contrite if that's you this morning god will
revive you now i just want in closing to mention this some of you are
thinking you know i've done this before i've tried repenting i've tried
getting right with god and nothing works but the word of god says this
it is for freedom that christ has set you free stand firm then and do
not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery you will be
bound unless you believe that the lord jesus christ not only died to
forgive you of your sin but he also died to free you from your sin we
preach a gospel of forgiveness but not freedom from our sin forgiveness
of sin but not freedom this is why the holy spirit was given to free us
from ours to raise us up as he raised christ from the death on the third
day that same power is like the working of his mighty power which he
exerted in christ and raised him and we have been raised with christ but
if satan can keep you believing that you've only been forgiven and you
have not been freed then you will not be freed scripture says it is for
free it's free i remember an old missionary telling me mark the reason
you are struggling is because you do not believe the promise in
scripture it says and having disarmed powers and authorities he made a
public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross satan has
power in your life in these areas because you don't believe that he's
been defeated do you know he's been disarmed whatever the sin is that's
binding you today satan has been disarmed and the only power he has over
you is the power of the lie let's assume that this is a stun gun and i'm
a thief the thief comes to steal kill and destroy in our lives and i go
out and i'm hiding next to your car and it's at night time and you come
out and i hold this up to you and i say your money or your life i've
tripled the voltage so it's going to kill you your money or your life
little do i know your black belt in karate you do a flying kick knock it
out you disarm me what can i do i've been disarmed you drive away but
the next poor unsuspecting soul comes out to get in their car i've been
disarmed you know what i do i put my finger in my pocket and i go like
this your money or your life now if you believe i have a gun and i can
what are you going to do i can rob you i can steal no that i've been
disarmed that's why some of you like i was for many years were bound
because we do not believe that we can be free you will know the truth
and the will set you free if the sun sets you free you will be in god
that has appeared that brings salvation to all men it teaches us to do
what say no to ungodliness passions and to live self-controlled and
godly lives in this present day you see as our brother shared earlier
satan is the father of lies and if he can believe you cannot change you
will not change but god says repent if you if you i will if you will
confess and humble yourself i will if you will believe the truth set you
free you will be free and the question then is lord do i believe you you
see the third time i got saved which was the real time i got born again
the word came out of my mouth when i was on my knees i wasn't even
praying to saved i was on my knees you know what i was praying i confess
the greatest sin that i ever committed and it came out and i said lord
jesus i confess the most grievous sin that i've ever committed and it's
not all these things that i've confessed you before the greatest sin
i've ever committed is an evil heart of unbelief according to hebrews
and those words just came out and i asked god to forgive me for unbelief
not believing that it is for freedom that he has set us free and not
believing he can revive us again and again and again may god speak to us
this morning and draw us to him and repentance and he will turn he will
there's a promise he will turn he will have mercy if we judged ourselves
we do not need to come under judgment if we wait too long and god takes
us there may be just a fearful expectation of judgment and fire or if
we're christians then we will repent we will weep you know when jesus
dries every tear i believe that part of those tears is we're going to
realize how much more he could have used us if only we had believed his
word god has spoken to you this morning this afternoon now and let's
allow the holy spirit just to speak to us we're not revived in a
conference we're revived by the holy spirit it's between you and him you
may feel you want to pray with someone you're welcome to come forward
but god can meet you right where you are right where you are let's just
have a few moments of silent prayer and then we'll close and if you'd
like just continue an attitude of prayer as the lord speaks to us
heavenly father we come to you we humble ourselves before you lord we
come broken and father you can't fix anything unless it's broken first
we don't come with our pride and our self-sufficiency we come broken you
have convicted us of our sin we have sinned against you you only have we
sinned and done what is evil in your sight so god we wanted to just to
judge ourselves and to admit this and to repent and to come to you and
ask for forgiveness but lord we've asked that so often we now believe
that you could give us freedom not just through the shed blood of the
lord jesus christ but the power of the holy spirit who rose him and will
give life to our mortal bodies we died to sin how can we live in it any
longer his name is jesus for he will free his people from their sins
lord if there's anyone here this morning and perhaps like me would they
just wanted to be freed from hell but not freed from their sins lord
would you please have mercy and save that one save us today oh lord and
lord for those of us who have left our first love please draw us back
please draw us back there is nothing nothing more lovely and beautiful
than the lord jesus christ there is nothing more enjoyable than walking
with him and fellowshipping with him have i in heaven but you and being
with you i desire nothing on earth there is great joy in your presence
lord turn our hearts revive us again that we might rejoice in you thank
you oh lord for what you will do it's in the name of the lord jesus
christ we pray these things amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Apsbf_epzag.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/mark-greening/loving-sin-more-then-jesus/
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